Any healing is pointless atm because of the amount of degenerate cheese the game has along with unlimited rests and savescumming.
If they bother you, why do you use them? I wasn't even aware you could eat food during combat. Why? I never tried to do it. It never even occurred to me to try it. The same is true for "unlimited rests and save scumming". They're starting to sound a lot more like buzz words than actual issues, especially given that the three things listed here are things that are already within a player's control.
Topic: If you don't want food to be used during combat, don't use food during combat.
Unlimited rests: For the first two days of playing, I was afraid to rest at all, because I was afraid of what might happen with the tadpole. Once I figured out that I was safe on that count, I didn't suddenly start going to camp every 5 minutes of gameplay. Truth be told, I usually take a character to camp to rest when I'm done with either the game, or that save file for the day.
Save scumming: Sorry, but this has been a thing for longer than I care to admit. I can remember seeing references to it during discussions of BG 1. I've already come down on the side of "we shouldn't be able to save during combat", but I remember watching an ESO video where he was saving in combat during a mini boss battle in Skyrim. So it's hardly unique to here, and, as with the two optional things listed above, can be completely ignored by one that doesn't want to use it, such as myself.
Note that while there is a MP component, it is also a SP game. What Player Y does in their SP game has no affect at all on my SP experience, and for MP, ground rules can be set at the beginning of each session.
